“No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation” (Wu: 120)
Among the other rules regarding public art in terms of the Production Code, suggestive dancing and obscenity were forbidden. In today’s society these strict regulations would make a vast majority of our entertainment, whether it be television, movies, dance pieces, plays and many more, be considered inappropriate and thus would not be permitted production.
It is hard to imagine a change such as the Production Code emerging and putting an abrupt halt to the production of media that violates its regulations. However that is what happened in the mid 1930’s. It was evident which movies were released pre-code versus those that were released prior to the Production Code of the mid 1930’s due to the drastic chage. Thankfully today’s movie producers simply rate movies based on their content as opposed to being limited to rules such as the Production Code. This provides us with the ability to see movies that display crime, suggestive behavior and obscenity with reasonable restrictions based on age or maturity.
I found the notion of the production code startling and perplexing. I never knew that such a code existed. Doubtless, some movies from that time period are considered among the best but I would say this is despite the code and not because of it. I'm also thankful that today we have the rating system that allows a variety of movies to be released. Movies with social commentary that challenge our typical ideas are powerful in that they make us think and evaluate situations rather than serving as mindless entertainment. Life, morals and values are not black and white so why should movies have to be?
ReplyDeleteYou make a really good point with the quote by Mick LaSalle ("celebrate independence and initiative"). Directors were forced to make movies that fit a certain model and followed specific standards. This clearly took away their creativity and freedom to express themselves. In today's society I would assume that all movies with the rating R would not have been made during the time of the Production Code. However, if you look you see that the past 5 movies to win the Academy Award for Best Movie were rated R. Clearly, the best films are ones that don't hold anything back and simply tell it as it is. Do you think the best "censored" movies from the 30s would be as popular as the "uncensored" ones today? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteFunny story about my own dad, a devout Catholic (who is no longer with us to read this): he and his friends, not long back from WW II, decided to sneak into a banned film in the 1950s. It was a serious foreign film, but such films could only be shown at adult cinemas.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know what it was. It had a scene of a woman giving birth...that was enough to bring down the wrath of the censors and a "forbidden" mark from the Catholic Church. My dad, no film buff, said the film was awful and bored him and his friends to death.
The irony of all this would be that today, a woman giving birth on screen, if shown graphically, or a married couple shown having sex with full frontal nudity, might earn a film the same rating as a scene of a zombie disemboweling someone and eating them. Perhaps our ratings provide guidance, but I'd love to see more nuance.
Mike, I don't think Mae West would be as shocking to contemporary viewers today, and Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is as morally corrupt as anything from before 1934. It's a film that shows the corruption of every level of human life. But at least it got an R rating, and I don't think Tarantino's creativity was stifled. I don't like his morality but I'd not ban him and would fight for his right to make films.
I'll withhold final judgment on his moral vision until I see Inglorious Bastards, but he's a great film maker who knows his craft.